PAINTING/DRAWING
with JUDE RAE

MOROCCO
23 March – 6 April 2024

This 14 day tour will traverse a large part of southern Morocco, from the ancient city of Marrakech over the Atlas Mountains to the edge of the Sahara.

Jude Rae will share her skills and expertise in drawing and painting, finding a balance between site seeing and art making. Some days will involve guided tours or long drives through spectacular landscape, while other days will devote more time to art making.

For this tour we will work with drawing mediums and watercolour paints or gouache on paper to create a series of daily drawings as well as some more resolved paintings.

Painting and drawing as “aide memoire” and the antidote to the iPhone

“What I’d like to do for our two week Morocco experience is to set a task of making at least 3 small quick drawings everyday, of something or somewhere that we notice. This would be separate and in addition to the more substantial time we will have set aside for such activities. 

These notations can be as simple and scrawly as you like, maybe based on just a series of horizontals and verticals, or using a kind of contour drawing where you don’t really look much at what you’re doing. Or if you have a mini watercolour set, just a series of little dabs of colour and tone, watery blobs of light and dark in response to what you see.

The trick will be to isolate each of these to a single page (in a small sketch pad or blank page journal) and maybe to note the day, time and place if you’re that organised.

In the evenings if there is time, perhaps after dinner, we can have a show and tell of our favourites in addition to any more substantial work we might be able to do.” – Jude Rae

 

ABOUT JUDE RAE

Australian painter Jude Rae is best known for her still life compositions of mundane objects, architectural interiors and portraits. Over the last 40 years she has held more than 50 solo exhibitions including surveys of her work at the Canberra Museum and Art Gallery in 2009 and ANU Drill Hall Gallery in 2017. 

Her portraits have won the Portia Geach Award twice (2005 and 2008), three times Highly Commended in the Archibald Prize and in 2016 she was awarded the prestigious Bulgari Art Award by the Art Gallery of NSW. Working primarily in oil paint, the development of her refined formal compositions has always involved the practice of drawing and involved a variety of mediums, from charcoal and graphite to watercolour and printmaking. 

Jude holds an MA (Visual Arts) from Canterbury University and has regularly taught Art History, Art Theory and 2D Studio Practice in Australian and New Zealand universities over the last 25 years, most recently at the National Art School in Sydney.

Her works can be found in major public collections in Australia and New Zealand (including the NGA, NPG, The High Court of Australia, AGNSW, QAGOM, AGSA, The Museum of NZ Te Papa Tongarewa, The NZ Supreme Court, Auckland Art Gallery and Christchurch Art Gallery) as well as private collections around the world. 

MORE ABOUT THE TOUR

Perched on the North West tip of Africa, Morocco is endowed with a rich and complex cultural history where the indigenous Amazigh (Berber) people maintain a strong connection with the land and their ancient traditions and lifestyle, which have endured the Arab Islamic overlay introduced in the 7th century and the various other influences brought by the Phoenicians, the Romans, Portuguese, Spanish and most recently the French.

The warmth and good humour of the people in Morocco is immense and the insights into the Islamic world, Amazigh spirituality and contemporary life fascinating. Accommodation is provided in the most comfortable traditional guesthouses, where we will enjoy the extraordinary delights of Amazigh food, hospitality and traditional music.

The tour is not an intensive workshop as we aim to give you an immersive experience of this unique place, together with an opportunity to travel and work with Jude Rae. 

Traveling with like-minded people and an experienced team of co-hosts including Australian artist/curator Rita Lazauskas and professional Amazigh Guide Abdenabi Imelouane, the program offers an innovative and creative way to explore a new place that is stimulating, supportive and safe.

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